Hello AT,
Hello ! My husband and I recently purchased our first home. It is a 5 bedroom spacious 2 level home, we also have 5 children.
In short, decorating funds are running low.
My question is--Can I paint or spray paint my existing metal or aluminum mini blinds? They are a light blue right now, and are of good quality. My color scheme is of a darker pallet(lots of bamboo,comforter is maroon and gold.)I would appreciate any helpful ideas.
Thanks, L. Townsend
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I think that since they're light blue, I would probably just try to put some kind of sheer in front of them that went better with the room, and just think of that light blue as being just the beautiful blue sky pouring into the windows.
Sheers can be pretty cheap to make.
Because I think that spray painting blinds might be a huge, horrible task. If you DO that it on, you'll need to un-install them, and then re-install them on some kind of makeshift outdoor post-and-lintel thing that imitates a regular installation, and then shield that from the wind and have some kind of tarp behind it, and do numerous VERY light coats from each side and also from the underside.
One reason for such light coats, is that those thread things will also probably get paint on them, and you don't want them to stick together or stick to the slats.
No, I've never done this, but I did paint some of the old fashioned kind with a paint brush and some outdoor sign paint, and it was quite an interesting artwork thing, because there were two sides of it.
Anyway... if you have so many bedrooms, maybe you'd like to try it on one of the rooms that you can get by with experimenting on. Like the teenage son's room or something? If you like the result then do it to the rest of them.
If it were me, I'm pretty sure I would just get new ones, though. Seriously.
The blue-blinds-as-sky idea is so fabulous that I'm tempted to get permission to *put* blue blinds against our back view of the bowels of hell, just so I can hang sheers over them and pretend it's sky.
Curtis is right. It is gonna be a LOT of work.
What about changing the other paint colors to work with what is already there? Lemonade out of lemons?
Or...Pier One has really cheap bamboo / grass shades that are chic once you get 'em out of the store.
i'm with Curtis. Hit Ikea, pick up some matchstick blinds (v. cheap), and if you feel like getting crafty you can edge them with grosgrain ribbon.
those metal blinds are clanky when the window is open, and collect dust...
I would never paint the blinds. Too much work for too little reward. Unless, of course, I was an artist like Curtis. Since there are very few Curtii around, in fact he is a very limited edition of one, I would do the sky plus sheer suggestion which is beautiful in thought and would doubtless be beautiful in deed.
Oh, another thing one COULD do is to very carefully detach every single stinkin' slat. But that's only if you have whatever brand it is that are made to be adjustable. But that would be an ENORMOUS booty-pain.
Hi,
Curtis is right on... he said a bunch of stuff I was gonna say.
As the drapery and blind maven on a bunch of films I HAVE painted horizontal blinds... and past the pain Curtis described, the cords get stiff and sticky and don't work so well. Put the energy tword replacing. I'd start at Ikea and go one room at a time both for cost and learning curve.
Good luck!
Wende -
If you want to pretend you have some trees outside your window that really is a brick wall... then go to someone's place who DOES have one, and make note of the character of the blocks of shadow and draw them onto something and then make some cut-outs from contact paper then very carefully affix them to your new blue blinds, and then spray gently a SLIGHTLY greyer blue and use that like a stencil and then remove the contact paper. OK, don't use contact paper; probably TOO sticky. Anyway... it would be a fun thing to try. Try it on some that you find on the street, or some REALLY cheap ones first.
I don't know if I would attempt to paint blinds, since washing mine in my bathtub was a severe test of my patience. It was next to impossible to prevent them from sticking together; I can't imagine painting would be easier.
Trust me, it is so not worth it. When we moved to our place there were aluminum mini blinds which I had cleaned - it was a huge pain to take them down, reinstall them - and the cleaning didn't really work out well either. You can visit a site www.blindsforless.com - they have a huge selection of blinds that can be custom cut and they are totally inexpensive and great customer service and quality. Plus free shipping.
HI, I just spray painted my minio blinds and it works out great. I hung then to a clothes line and just went for it. Ever so often I would turn the handle to make sure the strings didn't get stuck. It takes some time but it is a HECK of a money saver. With 27 plus windows in my house i just truly could not afford all new window treatments. I would recommend in a heart beat!
did you use spray paint?
I painted mine, just used a good quality spray paint and made sure they were clean. I attached brackets to ceiling of my garage and hung them in there and sprayed. You must keep moving the slats so the cord wont stick. If not the cord wont move easily. One got stiff, but in time, it loosened up.
Do they custom cut wooden blinds at Ikea?
I found this link about painting blinds and I thought that I would share it!
http://www.doityourself.com/stry/paintingblinds